When Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, was released, it was pretty clear that the deal was a shady blood money arrangement, with the UK govt and BP nearly simultaneously securing oil deals with Libya.

And now, thanks to wikileaks, we know it was a shady and sickening trade.

Basically, the main issue for the Tony Blair government was that al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer who was behind the Lockerbie bomber, was in prison in Scotland, and Scotland is independent enough that London can't just tell it what to do.

So instead, the UK government gave extensive legal advice to the Libyans on how to have the convicted terrorist released on 'compassionate' grounds due to his cancer diagnosis.

And of course, when he was released to Libya, he was greeted as a hero.